FORT MEADE, Md. (AP) - Army Pfc. Bradley Manning stood at attention in his crisp dress uniform Wednesday and learned the price he will pay for spilling an unprecedented trove of government secrets: up to 35 years in prison, the stiffest punishment ever handed out in the U.S. for leaking to the media.

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) - Gay couples rushed to a courthouse in Las Cruces on Wednesday after the county clerk decided to issue same-sex marriage licenses in a surprise move that came as several legal challenges on the practice make their way through the courts.

DECATUR, Ga. (AP) - A man with an assault rifle and other weapons exchanged gunfire with officers Tuesday at an Atlanta-area elementary school before surrendering, a police chief said, with dramatic overhead television footage capturing the young students racing out of the building, being escorted by teachers and police to safety. No one was injured.

TRIAL BEGINS FOR OHIO MOM CHARGED IN SCHOOL BRAWL : CINCINNATI (AP) - A police officer testified Wednesday that he arrested a woman accused of helping her teenage daughter beat up a classmate at a high school because she "tried to take the law into her own hands" when she bypassed school rules to get on campus.

FORT HOOD, Texas (AP) - American soldiers deploying overseas to "engage in an illegal war" provoked the deadly shooting rampage at Fort Hood in 2009, the soldier accused in the attack said Wednesday after refusing to mount a defense during his trial.

WASHINGTON (AP) - The National Security Agency declassified three secret court opinions Wednesday showing how in one of its surveillance programs it scooped up as many as 56,000 emails and other communications by Americans not connected to terrorism annually over three years, revealed the error to the court - which ruled its actions unconstitutional - and then fixed the problem.

DECATUR, Ga. (AP) - A gunman opened fire with an assault rifle Tuesday at officers who shot back at an Atlanta-area elementary school, a police chief said, with dramatic overhead television footage capturing the young students racing out of the building, being escorted by teachers and police to safety. No one was injured.

PHOENIX (AP) - Tough-talking Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio is warning civilians who embark on armed patrols in remote desert terrain that they could end up "seeing 30 rounds fired into them" by one of his deputies.

CASE OF GUN RIGHTS ADVOCATE GOES TO GRAND JURY: NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) - A Nashville judge has rejected claims that police had no right to arrest a man who walked around downtown last month wearing a bullet-proof vest and carrying an assault rifle.

Articles by Section - Nation

SCHOOL AIDE BARRICADED SELF IN CLASSROOM; TOOK OFF CLOTHES: LEMON GROVE . (AP) - Authorities say an afterschool program assistant kept 14 children inside a California classroom while appearing to be hallucinating on drugs.

WASHINGTON (AP) - Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, a pugnacious and glamour-averse tactician who united Democrats to help deliver tough victories for President Barack Obama, said Friday he's retiring next year. He immediately endorsed brash New York Sen. Chuck Schumer to succeed him as leader of a party desperate to regain the Senate majority.

BROOKFIELD, Wis. (AP) - A Wisconsin couple is accused of locking their 13-year-old daughter in a cold basement with no toilet or sink, forcing her to wear diapers and refusing to allow her to sit on furniture in the family home, according to criminal charges filed this week.

NORMAN, Okla. (AP) - Members of a University of Oklahoma fraternity apparently learned a racist chant that recently got their chapter disbanded during a national leadership cruise four years ago that was sponsored by the fraternity's national administration, the university's president said Friday.

BARTOW, Fla. (AP) - A baby who was found dead in her car seat in a Florida restaurant parking lot had lost more than one-third of her body weight in the 22 days since she was born, a medical examiner testified Friday.

VALLEJO (AP) - The strange case of a California woman who disappeared for two days grew stranger still Thursday, with her uncle and a lawyer for her boyfriend insisting she was kidnapped while police said it was a hoax.

LOS ANGELES (AP) - As promised, the Terminator and the man who originated the steely machine - Arnold Schwarzenegger - are back this summer for another go in "Terminator: Genisys," and Paramount Pictures, eager for a blockbuster, has already fired up a machine of its own - the publicity kind.

MUNHALL, Pa. (AP) - A teachers union says a special needs student at a Pittsburgh-area elementary school shouldn't be allowed to use a faculty restroom even though school officials say it's difficult for the girl to climb steps to reach a student restroom on another floor.

HOUSTON (AP) - A celebrity booking agency has told the Texas attorney general's office it is not all right to make public how much the University of Houston is paying actor Matthew McConaughey to speak at the school's May 15 commencement ceremony.

CHICAGO (AP) - An Illinois Army National Guard soldier vowed to bring "the flames of war to the heart" of America if he was unable to get to the Middle East to join the Islamic State group, and his cousin bragged he could kill up to 150 people in a terrorist attack in the U.S., federal prosecutors said Thursday in announcing the men's arrests. Both are also accused of hatching a plot to attack a U.S. military facility.

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - A federal appeals court agreed Thursday to reconsider its decision to strike down a California law that requires applicants for a concealed-weapons permit to show "good cause" beyond self-defense.

LOS ANGELES (AP) - The father of a former Los Angeles police officer was charged Thursday with lying to FBI agents to help his son escape after the officer was charged with killing a man during an off-duty fight.

PARIS (AP) - Passengers with moments to live screamed in terror and the pilot frantically pounded on the locked cockpit door as a 27-year-old German co-pilot deliberately and wordlessly smashed an Airbus carrying 150 people into an Alpine mountainside.